Wait, Why Is There Ash Water in the Noodles at Betony?

For the last few months, Betony’s executive chef, Bryce Shuman, has spent a lot of time in the kitchen with litmus paper. He's been testing for alkaline water with a pH between 9 and 11 so that he could bind too-brittle buckwheat noodles for a new cold soba noodle salad on the menu. He didn't expect that potter Jane Herold, who makes Betony's ceramic dishware, would come to the rescue. Turns out, she frequently discards buckets of alkaline water she has leftover from rinsing ashes for glazes. How did a byproduct from the plates' production wound up in the restaurant's noodles?

Jane Herold is the potter behind some of the country's hottest restaurants. Peek inside her workshop to see how she works and where ash water factors into her process.

The Science of Noodle-Making

The first attempt Shuman and his team, including chef de partie Sophia Dean who initially pitched the idea, made at 100% buckwheat noodles was a bust. The soba fell apart, and needed more structure, more chew. They did more research and Shuman learned that ramen noodles are typically cooked in an alkaline water solution (science class reminder: that means the pH is greater than 7). In fact, the ingredient that gives ramen its usual springy, gummy quality is a mix of alkaline minerals called kansui (a.k.a. what makes lye water). With some digging, he found that technique has also been used for soba: "An alkaline solution creates a certain starchy gel and makes the noodles a little chewier," he explains.

It's hard to get kansui outside of Asia, so chefs that want alkaline water with a pH between 9 and 11 (that's the ideal noodle-making range) usually opt for a quick-fix. Some add flour—not an option for Shuman, who tries to make dishes gluten-free when possible so that his mother can eat them. Others opt for baking soda, but that only raises the alkalinity to 8. Lye water, which is used for the pretzel crisps at the restaurant (and for varieties of bagels and tortillas), is too caustic, and for noodles way too powerful (its pH is between 11 and 12). Next, the team tried baking soda, which took the solution to 9.

Ashes that potter Jane Herold will sift and rinse.

Alex Lau

Will Cook for Ash Water

That would've been enough, but cooking baking soda before meal service is a pain. Shuman wanted gallons of it at the ready. He paid an unrelated visit to the Palisades to talk dining room dishes with Herold at her workshop. There he learned her process, which involves ash glazes, meant that she often threw buckets of alkaline water away. It was a lightbulb moment.

A plate Herold molded for Betony.

Alex Lau

Plates = Missing Link

If you've eaten at Semilla, Bâtard, Navy, Aska, The Dutch, and Marc Forgione (New York) or at Centrolina (Washington, D.C.), Boka (Chicago), or The Farm House (Nashville), you'll recognize Herold's work. You're eating off of it—hefty, hand-crafted pottery she molds on a kick wheel (rather than a speedier electric pottery wheel) and fires in a kiln in her backyard.

And Herold, who handmade 1300 plates for Betony in under three months when the restaurant first opened, had gallons of ash water that she was just throwing away. Ash glazes are integral to her aesthetic: They impart that made-by-human-hands, no-two-dishes-the-same quality to her dishware. What Herold needs for her glazes emerges after four rounds of sifting and rinsing the ashes that collect at the bottom of a kiln already fired. The first rinse's water is too caustic. But, by the third round, large quantities of ash water's at the perfect 9 to 11 pH range Shuman wants.

Betony's dishware in the kiln and ready for firing at Herold's workshop. The ashes from this firing will be used to bind soba noodles at the restaurant.

Alex Lau

The Final Dish

Shuman now stores a five gallon bucket of Herold's leftover ash water in the fridge at the restaurant to make those noodles the right way, and without the baking soda shortcut. The result? "The dish has squash 'noodles,' zucchini 'noodles,' soba noodles, and then we chiffonaded these pickled dill beans we make for pickled bean noodles," said Shuman. "Then we take the pickle juice, with all the crazy lactobacillic stuff, and dress the noodles with that, olive oil, lots of fresh-picked dill, and serve it with just the guts from inside burrata." The idea is to emulate a giant noodle bowl: "What's so great about a bowl of noodles is that it's a pile of noodles," he jokes.

"Now we can use the water and open a conversation about ceramics and how awesome Jane is," says Shuman, "Because, in essence, you're eating on the plate...but you're also kind of eating the plate."

Jane Herold is the potter behind the dishware at some of the country's hottest restaurants. Peek inside her workshop to see how she works and where ash water factors into her process.